behind, only by the minuteness of the detail I should furnish, of the incidents and scenes through which I might pass. To insure this, as far as practicable, the manuscript from which the letters contained in these volumes are drawn, was filled up, and transmitted to the person to whom they are addressed.

A thought of making the contents public was never entertained by me, till the cruise in the South Seas was in part accomplished; and the whole voyage was nearly at its close, before I became persuaded of the propriety of hazarding a second appearance in print. It was not my intention, when this point was determined, to present the matter in its original, familiar, and confidential form. But circumstances awaiting my arrival in the United States, and an event of sorrow, that has since occurred, made the review of the manuscript too unwelcome a task to admit of any material alteration either in its arrangement or style; and, with the exception of erasures, the whole remains, almost word for word, as originally penned at the common messtable of a gun-room, amidst the various conversation of my fellow-officers, liable to momentary interruptions from busy attendants, and within hearing of all the bustle and din of a man-of-war.

The last letter from Rio de Janeiro, on the character of the late honorable William Tudor, has been amplified as a biographical sketch, since I have been called, with his family and country, to lament his death. Incidents accompanying his illness and burial,

and the various public notices in the United States, in Europe, and in South America, of his decease, have proved that the estimate then made of his character and public standing at the court of Brazil, was far from being overrated. A state coach of the emperor, escorted by a detachment of the imperial guard, bore his body to the grave, while the pall was supported by a chief minister of the cabinet, and by the most distinguished ambassadors of the diplomatic corps.

At the Georgian Islands, I had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. William Pascoe Crook, one of the missionaries at Tahiti. This gentleman had spent. nearly two years, 1797-98, at the Marquesan and Washington Islands; and kindly submitted to my inspection a manuscript journal of the period, the contents of which so fully corroborate my own observations and statements, in reference to the inhabitants of that section of Polynesia, that I present them with greater confidence than I otherwise might have felt. To Mr. Crook Lam principally indebted for the contents of the letter referring to the religious classes, ceremonies, &c. of these Islanders; and also, for facts of a similar nature, occasionally interspersed, which are not stated as passing under my own immediate observation.

The minuteness of the details, in regard to dress, furniture, and comparatively trifling incidents, given at the Sandwich Islands, may be thought by some of my readers, unworthy the space they occupy. My object in retaining them has not been their intrinsic

worth, but their importance as data, by which to estimate the true state of that nation. The impression conveyed by the assertions, that great success has attended the missionary efforts; that important changes have occurred; and that the people are in a very improved condition, is vague and indefinite: but these details-first recorded for the gratification of one to whom, from other considerations, they could not fail to be highly interesting-show, in a degree at least, in what that success consists; what the magnitude of the change taken place is; and what the extent of improvement, when compared with the state, in which the whole population was found by the missionaries in 1820.

Should others, into whose hands these volumes may fall, be disposed to imagine, that the partiality, which I confess myself to feel for the Islanders, proved a deceptive medium of observation, in the views taken of their condition and propects, I can only say, that gentlemen of our company, whose prejudices, previous to the visit of the Vincennes, were as adverse to a happy impression as any indulged by myself could be propitious to one that was favorable, have pronounced my statements, as seen by them both in manuscript and print, beneath the reality they are designed to portray.

An interesting and valuable series of official reports, of the cruise in the South Seas, has been furnished to the navy department, by the commander of the Vincennes; and I am happy in the authority of asserting, that they fully substantiate the leading facts, incidents, and impressions, contained in the present work.

The latter part of one of the letters at the Sandwich Islands, in which an allusion is made to M. Von Kotzebue's "New Voyage Round the World," it is proper to state, has been appended, from considerations that will be manifest in the perusal, to the facts preceding it, since the date of the original communication.

I feel it incumbent on me, to apologize for the very meagre accounts given of places of interest visited on our homeward voyage. It has not arisen from any want of matter, or from a discontinuance of the minuteness of detail in the original document; but from a conviction that the work has been already extended beyond a desirable limit.

In surrendering the volumes to the public, I would only add, that should they on the one hand, be thought to possess any degree of interest, or to have the least. valuable tendency upon the minds and hearts of those arrived to years of maturity, I shall be fully compensated for the labor of the publication; and on the other, should they be adjudged worthy of a place only on the humble shelves of a sabbath school library, my expectation of their merit will not be altogether disappointed; nor even then, I trust, will the chief motive leading to their appearance—the presentation of correct views, and the excitement of just feelings towards “THE ISLES OF THE SEA"-be altogether defeated.

New-York, June 8th, 1831.

LETTERS from Washington will have apprised you, dear H——, of my departure from that city on the 25th ult. I arrived at Norfolk by the way of Baltimore on the 29th, and joined this ship on the 30th.

Having been the bearer of sailing orders from the Navy Department to Commodore Thompson, he left his quarters on shore the same morning, and, under a salute of thirteen guns, hoisted his broad pennant on board the Guerriere. An easterly storm prevented the taking of our anchor for the week following; but two days since, in a heavy blow from the southwest, we ran down the river to our present moorings opposite Fortress Monroe, where, with our consort the St. Louis, we are again weather bound.

On reporting myself for duty, I was received by Commodore Thompson with the same urbanity and openness of heart that marked his deportment as a travelling companion, on a first introduction, a month VOL. I.

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